AIM Framework glossary
Divergent-Path Prior
Canonical definition
The Divergent-Path Prior is the principal instance of Divergent-Path Pre-Loading: the standing prior that an expressed view is the output of that person's unique trajectory through information space and is therefore not, by default, truth-tracking or tagged to a real-world Referent; it is evidence about the speaker's path, and only derivatively, upon verification, evidence about the Referent. The prior does not assert that the speaker is wrong; it withholds the default promotion of expression into evidence. Expressed Beliefs earn evidential weight by decoherence against an accessible Referent (Truth-Tracked sources, disinterested testimony, measurement), and the prior leaves that earned weight untouched (Testimony Floor).
Explanation
"Your certainty tells me about your journey before it tells me about the world." Not an insult, a fact about how Belief works for everyone, including me.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct. Content of a prior, not a procedure; derived from the path-dependence of Belief and Axiom 8. Not an additional axiom.